¿Cómo hacen la MIEL las ABEJAS? 🍯🐝 (Producción + Extracción de los Panales)
How Do Bees Produce Honey?
The Process of Honey Production
- The honey-making process begins when worker bees leave the hive to search for nectar from flowers, which is a sugary liquid secreted by plants to attract pollinators.
- Once they collect nectar using their long tongues, they store it temporarily in a special stomach called the "honey stomach," distinct from their regular digestive stomach.
- Upon returning to the hive, bees perform a dance to communicate the location of the nectar sources. They then regurgitate the nectar and pass it to other bees for aeration, which involves swallowing and regurgitating it multiple times over about 20 minutes.
- After achieving the right consistency, bees store the nectar in honeycombs. At this stage, it's not yet honey as it still needs more moisture removed.
- To prevent fermentation, bees fan their wings over the honeycomb until moisture content drops below 20%. Finally, they seal it with a wax cap called an operculum.
Harvesting Honey
- Beekeepers extract honey by first removing the wax capping from filled combs using special knives or machines known as uncappers.
- The uncapped frames are placed in an extractor that spins them rapidly; centrifugal force extracts honey from the comb cells.
- Extracted honey is stored in containers and allowed to settle for several days so impurities can rise to the surface due to density differences between honey and contaminants.
Longevity of Honey
- Honey does not spoil; it retains its beneficial properties indefinitely. Archaeologists have found edible honey in ancient Egyptian tombs dating back around 3000 years.